By Curtis McCormick
In the course of the last two decades, Frank Maloney can arguably lay claim to being Britain's premier fight manager. Aside from business associate Frank Warren, there are few that can approach Maloney's managerial credentials. Among the London native's past accomplishments include guiding Lennox Lewis to the Undisputed Heavyweight Championship of the World and Paul Ingle to the IBF Featherweight crown. Currently Maloney manages WBO Featherweight king Scott Harrison and British Lightweight Champion Graham Earl among others. Please join us here at www.frankmaloney.com as we present the one and only Frank Maloney's views of the new season of boxing in Great Britain.
"The new season got off to a bang in Britain on Friday, September 3rd," said Maloney. "Headlining the show was Enzo Macarrinelli who knocked out Jesper Kristiansen. Enzo, I believe, will become one of the biggest stars in British boxing in this coming year. A fellow cruiserweight that he was looking to fight in the near future was in action a week later at Wembley Arena in London. Unfortunately for Enzo, there will be no big fight for him in the future with David Haye, as the so-called "Golden Boy" of British boxing was totally destroyed inside five rounds by forty year old Carl Thompson."
"Thompson showed Haye that there are no shortcuts to the top in Britain, and there's no substitute for experience and preparing the right way for a fight. David Haye, who was being touted as the savior of British boxing by BBC television and the majority of British journalists, soon learned that to get anywhere in boxing, you must have the right team around you and you must prepare the right way. Some of the stories coming out of the Haye camp concerning his preparation and training regime would have made many an old trainer turn over in their grave."
"Modern training techniques have certainly benefited other fighters, and I do agree that boxing has to move into the twenty first century, but at the end of the day, there is no substitute for old fashioned preparation. I think the trick is to supplement that kind of no nonsense training with just the right modern techniques. We've seen it work with my own fighters such as Graham Earl, Danny Hunt, Scott Harrison and a fighter I advise and my brother Eugene Maloney manages, British and Commonwealth Heavyweight Champion Matt Skelton."
"On the very same night Haye was stopped by Thompson, we saw probably the best knockout in a British ring in a long time. Up until then, I would say that my own fighter Wayne Elcock's knockout loss to Lawrence Murphy was the best KO I'd seen, but Wayne Alexander's devastating one punch knockout of Takaloo at York Hall in London moves to the top of the table. Now, Takaloo must sit down and analyze where he goes from this darkest of defeats."
"People say that trainers can't win fights for you but I believe John Breen, Alexander's new trainer, certainly helped Wayne get in the best condition of his life. Breen is one of the old fashioned type of trainers and believes in locking his fighters away, keeping a twenty four hour watch on them. Breen makes it work and when Alexander stepped into the ring, he looked to be in probably the best shape of his life and I think that level of conditioning was the deciding factor in the fight."
"Also on the Alexander - Takaloo card we saw Martin Conception, my young light middleweight, bring his record to 6-0 with six KOs. Kevin Mitchell, under his new trainer, Babatunde Ajayi, recorded another win to move to 9-0. Gohkan Kazaz, my super middleweight, went to 7-0. My new signing Matthew Marsh won his pro fight in an all action four rounder. Marsh was described in one of the papers as a buzzsaw and a reminder of another York Hall favorite who went on to win the WBC Flyweight title in 1983, Charlie Magri.
So, it looks like the season has got off to a good start for Sports Network and myself. At this present moment I'm in negotiation to sign four new fighters who I think will be a big addition to British boxing. Also this week, we announced Scott Harrison's seventh world title fight a WBO defense against Samuel Kebede who is from Ethiopia but trains and lives in Scandinavia. He's ranked number five in the WBO ratings with a record of 24-0 with 14 KOs."
"We announced Scott's opponent on the same day that I visited him in his new training camp at Torquay, on the south coast of England. I was impressed by how well Scott looked. I believe you can always tell how a fighter is preparing by the way that he looks in his face after a couple of weeks of training camp. I must say that Scott Harrison is beginning to get the look of a hungry man."
"Recently I was amused by the comments of the Anorak who go on website forums and pass their comments concerning the careers of professional athletes. I'm not sure what they're called in America but in England we call them Anorak or Trainspotters. They know very little about the game yet they sit and pass judgement on fighters and people in the fight business. These people, in real life, probably wouldn't know a fishhook from a left hook. And if it wasn't for the computer, I wonder just how they would be spending their day?"
Log onto www.frankmaloney.com for the best in British and World boxing